Lansing city council will discuss budget priorities Monday night

The Lansing city council Monday night will spend some time trying to prioritize how the city should spend its money.

The city council is required to deliver its budget priorities for the year ahead to the mayor’s office by October First.

Carol Wood is the Lansing city council president.

She says the mayor’s office is supposed to incorporate the council’s priorities as it begins the process of drafting the next fiscal year’s budget.

Wood says the council is looking at a wide variety of ideas.

“Some of these are things we’ve asked for in previous years. Some of these are studies to have better cost efficiencies in departments. Some of these are looking at ‘quality-of-life’ issues with neighborhoods,” says Wood.

The main priority guiding Lansing’s city budget plans in recent years has been the need to cut spending.

The Lansing city council has rejected a plan to increase fees on city utility customers.

Today the city council approved a budget plan that axes the 46-dollar utility fee and several million dollars in spending in the mayor’s proposed budget for next year. Final council approval is expected Monday night.

“I think many of us had heard the concerns that people wanted to make sure we were making the cuts that needed to be made,” says Carol Wood, Lansing city council president.